Package for small slab-like articles



Aug. 20, 1968 D. REY

PACKAGE FOR SMALL SLAB-LIKE ARTICLES 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 17.1966 Aug. 20, 1968 D. REY 3,397,818

PACKAGE FOR SMALL SLAB-LIKE ARTICLES Filed Nov. 17, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet2 United States Patent 3,397,818 PACKAGE FOR SMALL SLAB-LIKE ARTICLESDaniel Rey, Chemin des Trois-Rois bis, Lausanne, Vaud, Switzerland FiledNov. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 595,169 Claims priority, applicationSwitzerland, Apr. 25, 1966, 5,985/ 66 Claims. (Cl. 221232) ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE A package for containing small slab-like articles, suchas chewing-gum, etc. formed of an enclosure having an upper wall, sidewalls and a bottom wall. One of the side walls includes a slot forextracting the articles. A spring-blade is secured to the bottom walland loops inwardly towards the upper wall to progressively urge thepackaged articles towards the upper wall. The upper wall includes anelongated opening or a curved resilient arm to engage the top one of thearticles for extracting or dispensing of the articles.

The object of the present invention is a package for small slabs or barsto be eaten, formed of thin rigid elements, connected to one another,which includes a top part, a bottom part and lateral walls, and whichcontains a pile or stack of small slabs or bars. Although packages ofthis type are already known, they have not been applied to the packagingof chewing-gum bars or sticks, which are generally contained in groupsof five in paper wrappings, the handling of which is not very handy assoon as they have been opened.

There are known, also, distributing or dispensing devices having theshape of rigid boxes, capable of containing a given number of objects tobe consumed, for example cigarettes or matches, and which are fittedwith a mechanism making it possible, most often by the pushing of abutton, partially to extract, one by one, each one of the objects theycontain. Now, the use of such distributing devices is connected with theoperation of filling them periodically, an operation which, depending onthe construction of the extracting mechanism, may be painstaking. Inaddition, the extracting mechanisms of the known distributing devices ingeneral include at least one pivoting lever and one pusher, andtherefore are relatively cumbersome, so that the small boxes presentdimensions which clearly exceed those of the whole of the objects theycontain. Such a distributing device, therefore, does not constitutepractical means with a volume reduced enough for the packaging of smallslabs or bars such as chewinggum.

The purpose of the present invention is the realization of a package tobe disposed of, which, presenting the qualities listed above, may servefor the packaging of small slabs or bars.

To this end, the package according to the invention is characterized bythe fact that an elastic organ or resilient member lodged between thelower part (bottom part) and the small slabs or bars, pushes the latteragainst the upper part, that one of the lateral walls presents a slitwhich extends flush with the top part, and that the latter presents,having been preferably manufactured with it, an extraction element whichmakes it possible to displace the small slab to bar with which it is incontact, to engage it into the slit.

The attached drawings represent, as examples, two forms of constructionof the package according to the invention.

FIGURE 1 is a view in perspective, broken apart, of the first form ofconstruction.

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FIGURE 2 is a longitudinal section of that first form of construction.

FIGURE 3 is a view in perspective of the second form of construction.

FIGURE 4 is a longitudinal section of said second form of construction,and

FIGURE 5 is a horizontal section along line VV of FIG. 4.

The package presented in FIGURE 1 is constructed of a size suitable tocontain approximately ten chewinggum small slabs or bars 6. It may beheld in one hand and lodged in a persons pocket. It is composed of anupper plate or cover 1, a bottom plate 2, two longitudinal walls 3 andtwo transversal walls 4. The top part 1 and the walls 3 and 4 arepreferably made of one piece, manufactured by molding, of a relativelyrigid plastic material which may be either transparent, translucid oropaque, depending on the case. As seen in FIGURE 2, each one of thewalls 4 includes an inner rib 5 which extends along the longitudinalaxis of the wall. The distance between the inner edges of these ribs isslightly greater than the length of small slabs or bars 6, which areheld piled up between the walls 3 and 4. Between the upper part 1 andone of the walls 4 there is provided a slit 7 which extends along a 45slope and the upper edge of which is formed by the inner edge of upperpart 1. The height of this slit is very slightly larger than thethickness of a small slab or bar 6.

The upper part 1 includes, in addition, in its central section, anelongated opening 8 which constitutes an extraction element the end ofwhich located near slit 7 is rounded in shape, while the other end isconstituted by a straight bevelled edge 9. The longitudinal edges ofopening 8 are divergent in such a Way that the width of the opening isslightly larger in its rear part near edge 9 than it is in its frontpart.

The part formed by elements 1, 3 and 4 includes in its lower angles fourstuds 10 which, when bottom 2 is set into place, engage in openings 11provided in the bottom 2. The latter thus can be secured to Walls 3 and4 in a final manner by setting in of the stud, after filling of thepackage.

Bottom 2 includes in its inner face longitudinal ribs 12 which eachextend slightly back of the corresponding edge, between two openings 11and a central transversal rib 13 in which there is provided a narrow andrelatively deep groove 14. A resilient member, such as a spring-blade15, the two ends of which are engaged in groove 14, occupies part of thespace which extends above bottom 2, in which space it forms a loop. Thisspring-blade presents a width such that it may engage between ribs 12.As seen in FIGURE 2, the spring-blade 15 works through its central parton the pile of the small slabs or bars 6 and presses them against thelower face of top part 1.

The length, the thickness and the formation of the spring-blade 15 aredetermined as functions of the size of the wrapping. Thus, it has beenobserved that one steel blade having a thickness of approximately of amillimeter, a width of approximately 15 millimeters and a length suchthat, when completely folded back on itself, it would extend from onerib 5 to the other, was ensuring a sufiicient pressure on the smallslabs or bars 6 so that the upper small slab or bar may easily bedisplaced by a motion of the thumb or of the index finger engaged inopening 8, to displace the upper slab partially out of the packagethrough slit 7, and the same operation for all the small slabs or forarticles in succession.

It will be observed that, in order to facilitate the action of thefinger on the upper small slab or bar against the force of spring 15,the upper part 1 is slightly slanted with 3 respect to bottom 2, in thatits front end, on the side of slit 7 is slightly more distant from thebottom 2 than its back end.

In the second form of execution, the described package also constitutesa disposable package, although it is constructed of a suitable size tocontain, for example, approximately twenty chewing gum bars or sticks.This package presents the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped. Itincludes an upper part 16, a bottom 17, two longitudinal walls 18 andtwo transversal walls 19. Walls 18 and 19 have been made of one piecewith studs 20 which project at angles into top and bottom parts 16 and17, and are affixed by setting-in, as is bottom 2 previously described.

Bottom 17 also presents, as does bottom 2, two longitudinal ribs 21 anda transversal rib 22 in which there is provided a groove 23 whichreceives the two ends of a spring-blade 24.

One of the walls 18 which forms the front wall in FIGURE 3, presents aslit 25 which extends flush with the lower face of top part 16. Inaddition, said front wall presents a smooth inner face while thetransversal walls 19 each include a central rib 26 and 27. The back Wall18 includes three vertical ribs 28, connected by means of a horizontalrib 29, located immediately below the level of the lower edge of slit25. The space found between the horizontal rib 29 and the upper edge ofwall 18 is occupied in part by a section of the upper part 16 whichincludes a segment of rib 30 and a resilient arm 31. The latter extendsfrom rib 30 to which it is attached, and is separated from the solidpart of the upper part 16. The arm 31 extends according to a curve whichintersects the back wall 19, and it may be elastically deformed and madeto extend along front wall 18 above rib 29. Its free end which runsthrough a slit 32 provided in back wall 19 and which is equipped with amaneuvering button 33 lodged in a break (set-back part) 34 in wall 19,can therefore be maneuvered from outside the package. It can be seen inFIGURE that when button 33 is placed in the position represented indash-dot lines, the pile of bars no longer is held back by arm 31, andspring 24 displaces the pile so as to bring the upper bar in contactwith the solid part of the upper part 16. If, at that time, button 33 isreleased, arm 31 takes back its natural shape, thus expulsing the upperbar through slit 25. This bar then takes on the position representedwith dash-dot lines in FIG- URE 5. Since the height of rib 30 and of itsextension 31 is slightly less than the thickness of a bar 35, theextraction motion is not hindered by the remaining bars. In addition,the upper bar which presents itself in an oblique position through slit25 remains caught (squeezed) by its inner end between the upper part 16and the pile up of bars. It is only when said bar has been removed thatthe upper bar of the pile is moved under the action of spring 24 andcomes to hit against arm 31 of the upper part 16.

The arrangement described, therefore, makes it possible for theextraction element such as the resilient arm 31 to operate freely.

The package presented in FIGURES 3 to 5 may be fitted with suitablemounting means which makes it possible to fasten the package in amovable manner to the dashboard of a car, for example. Because of thesimplicity of the extraction mechanism which only includes one elementwhich has been manufactured together with the upper part 16, the packagemay be executed as a disposable package, without being prohibitive inprice.

I claim:

1. A package for small slab-like articles, said package comprising:

an upper wall;

side walls rigidly secured to said upper wall, one of said side wallshaving a slot therein flush with said upper wall;

a bottom wall rigidly secured to said side walls opposite said upperwall;

an elongated central rib extending inwardly from said bottom wallbetween said side walls;

a spring-blade having its ends secured to said central rib and loopinginwardly towards said slot for urging said slab-like articles towardssaid upper wall; and

said upper wall including means for engaging the upper one of saidslab-like articles to enable extraction of said article from saidpackage.

2. A package according to claim 1, wherein said central rib includes anelongated groove therein, said springblade ends engaging said groove andsecured to said central rib.

3. A package according to claim 1, wherein said means for engaging theupper one of said slab-like articles comprises elongated opening meanswithin said upper wall to enable extraction of said upper article fromsaid package.

4. A package according to claim 1, wherein said side walls comprise twoparallel longitudinal walls and two parallel transverse walls transverseto said two parallel longitudinal walls, one of said transverse sidewalls having said slot included therein, and each of said transversewalls further including a pair of ribs for guiding said small slablikearticles within said package.

5. A package according to claim 4, wherein said slot extends in a planeslanted approximately 45 with respect to said upper wall.

6. A package for small slab-like articles, said package comprising:

an upper wall;

side walls rigidly secured to said upper wall, one of said side wallshaving a slot therein, said slot being flush with said upper wall;

a bottom wall rigidly secured to said side walls opposite said upperwall;

a resilient member operatively mounted between said upper wall and saidbottom wall for urging said small slab-like articles against said upperwall; and

said upper wall having a resilient arm with a fixed end secured theretoand with a free end extending along another of said side walls oppositeto said slot, said free end being movable in a plane parallel to saidupper wall and containing said slot for extracting the upper one of saidarticles.

7. A package according to claim 6, including a side wall having anopening therein flush with said upper wall, said side wall beingadjacent said first mentioned side wall having said slot therein, saidfree end of said resilient arm extending outwardly of said packagethrough said opening.

8. A package according to claim 6, wherein said fixed end of saidresilient arm secured to said upper wall extends tangent to said sidewall opposite said side wall having said slot therein, said resilientarm normally extending from said fixed end in a curve progressively awayfrom said side wall to said free end.

9. A package for small slab-like articles, said package comprising:

an upper wall;

side walls rigidly secured to said upper wall, one of said side wallshaving a first slot therein extending flush with said upper wall,another of said side walls adjacent said first mentioned side wallhaving a second slot therein;

a bottom wall secured to said side walls opposite said upper wall;

a resilient member operatively mounted between said upper wall and saidbottom wall for urging said small slab-like articles against said upperwall; and

a resilient arm having a fixed end secured to said upper wall, saidfixed end extending tangent to still another of said side walls oppositeto said first mentioned side wall having said first slot therein, saidresilient arm normally extending in a curve intersecting said secondslot at a point adjacent said first mentioned side wall.

10. A package according to claim 9, wherein said bottom wall includes acentral rib extending transverse to said first mentioned side wall, andwherein said resilient member comprises a single spring-blade havingboth ends secured to said central rib.

References Cited Maschek 221-232 X Drees 221-58 Willhelm 221-232 Butlin221-232 X Van Schie 221232 Holsombach 221-232 Gillespie 20639 WALTERSOBIN, Primary Examiner.

